Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Goddess Fish Promotions Book Review: An Unfolding Trap

An
Unfolding Trap

by
Jo
A. Hiestand

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE:
British
mystery

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Since
his infancy, Michael McLaren has been the target of his paternal
grandfather’s anger. So when the patriarch sends an invitation to
heal the rift, McLaren travels to Scotland, eager to meet and finally
end the feud. But the welcome never happens. If Grandfather hadn’t
invited him, who had? And why?

In
Edinburgh, a man standing beside McLaren in a bus queue is killed in
a hit-and-run accident. After an attack leaves McLaren for dead on a
wintry moor, he’s convinced someone from his past is trying to
murder him.

As
McLaren trails the hit-and-run driver from the medieval ‘underground
city’ of Edinburgh to the Boar’s Rock the MacLaren Clan’s
ancestral meeting place the assaults intensify, and he’s plunged
into a very personal hunt for a World War II treasure. The puzzle is
fascinating; he just has to stay alive to solve it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT

The
upper landing was dimly lit, so as not to spoil the theatricality of
the underground scene. But tiny strips of lights shone from beneath
the stair treads, defining the path to the bottom. His left hand slid
slowly along the metal railing, gripping more firmly as he paused to
find each successive step. He felt the small torch in his jacket
pocket but didn’t remove it. He needed his eyes to acclimate to the
darkness.

He
came to the second landing and the railing snaked back on itself, yet
still angled downward. McLaren could see a small pool of light at
ground level, a dozen stairs below. It seemed to come from a small
door to the right. He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves, and
descended.

At
the bottom of the spiraled staircase he stood for moment, letting his
eyes become accustomed to the near darkness. The ceiling was not much
more than head high and seemed to mock his fear of confinement. Ahead
he heard a voice relating the Close’s history. The voice sounded
thin, bouncing off the hard walls.

He
took a few steps past the bottom landing and looked around. The gloom
intimidated him, threatened to suffocate him. Ahead and to his right
pinpricks of weak yellowish light displaced some of the gloom and
defined the areas through the maze, but murkiness filled the majority
of the expanse. He moved slowly, his feet gliding over the rough
ground, his hand skating over the wall. His fingers touched the bumps
and small protuberances, skimming over them as though he were reading
Braille.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Review: I'm a sucker for British mysteries and I read one from the McLaren Mystery series awhile back and loved it, so I was anxious to read this one. I read Shadow in the Smoke back in December. Michael McLaren is a great private investigator.

In this book there's a potential family reconciliation, but things are never what they seem and that reconciliation doesn't really happen, because his grandfather insists that he wasn't invited. That's mystery number one.

Then there's a hit and run, with a man standing beside Mike in a bus queue. Mystery 2

This is a book that will keep you turning the pages to discover who dun it.

This is book 5 in the series, but all books are stand alone novels and if the two I've read are any indictation, great reads!

Rating: 5 stars

AUTHOR
Bio and Links:

A
month-long trip to England during her college years introduced Jo to
the joys of Things British. Since then, she has been lured back
nearly a dozen times, and lived there during her professional folk
singing stint. This intimate knowledge of Britain forms the backbone
of both the Taylor & Graham mysteries and the McLaren cold case
mystery series.

Jo’s
insistence for accuracy, from police methods and location layout to
the general feel of the area, has driven her innumerable times to
Derbyshire for research. These explorations and conferences with
police friends provide the detail filling the books.

In
1999 Jo returned to Webster University to major in English. She
graduated in 2001 with a BA degree and departmental honors.